ActiveCampaign vs. beehiiv

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ActiveCampaign
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
ActiveCampaign helps small teams power big businesses with a platform for intelligent marketing automation. It provides email marketing, marketing automation, and CRM tools that help businesses to create incredible customer experiences.
$15
per month
beehiiv
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
beehiiv is an email newsletter content creation and distribution platform from the company of the same name in New York. It boasts a sleek minimalist editor with flexibility, and customization, and a no-code template editor used to build a newsletter. Users can create content exclusively for different subscriber tiers and segments while beehiiv handles user authentication, paywalls, subscription management, and billing.
$49
per month
Pricing
ActiveCampaignbeehiiv
Editions & Modules
Starter
$15
per month
Plus
$49
per month
Pro
$79
per month
Enterprise
$145
per month
Grow
$49
per month
Scale
$99
per month
Launch
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ActiveCampaignbeehiiv
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsNo matter what plan you choose, our services are designed to help you get the most out of your investment — so you can focus on running your business. ActiveCampaign services included in all plan tiers: ActiveTraining Community access Contact migration Customer enablement workshops Video tutorials Chat and ticket support Knowledge base & help guides
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ActiveCampaignbeehiiv
Top Pros

No answers on this topic

Top Cons

No answers on this topic

Features
ActiveCampaignbeehiiv
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.5
679 Ratings
11% above category average
beehiiv
9.4
1 Ratings
16% above category average
WYSIWYG email editor7.9596 Ratings7.01 Ratings
Dynamic content7.4532 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content7.3482 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Landing pages6.8349 Ratings10.01 Ratings
A/B testing9.5391 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Mobile optimization8.8538 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting8.6645 Ratings10.01 Ratings
List management9.9664 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences10.0586 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.5
534 Ratings
9% above category average
beehiiv
-
Ratings
Lead nurturing automation9.9500 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading8.4365 Ratings00 Ratings
Data quality management9.1407 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks7.8360 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead segmentation and distribution7.510 Ratings00 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.9
383 Ratings
28% above category average
beehiiv
-
Ratings
Calendaring9.9303 Ratings00 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing9.9288 Ratings00 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
7.6
291 Ratings
1% above category average
beehiiv
-
Ratings
Social sharing and campaigns7.8258 Ratings00 Ratings
Social profile integration7.4253 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
7.4
642 Ratings
1% above category average
beehiiv
10.0
1 Ratings
27% above category average
Dashboards7.6611 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Standard reports7.4599 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Custom reports7.3386 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.4
503 Ratings
23% above category average
beehiiv
-
Ratings
API9.0401 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals9.1273 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizability8.4429 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com9.894 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM9.961 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM9.957 Ratings00 Ratings
Third-party software integrations9.931 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-Send Testing
Comparison of Pre-Send Testing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
-
Ratings
beehiiv
9.5
1 Ratings
17% above category average
URL Validation00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Email Previews00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
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ActiveCampaignbeehiiv
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Vbout
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Score 10.0 out of 10
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PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.2 out of 10
VerticalResponse
VerticalResponse
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.2 out of 10
Emma by Marigold
Emma by Marigold
Score 9.5 out of 10
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User Ratings
ActiveCampaignbeehiiv
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(691 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.9
(25 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.9
(53 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.2
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
1.3
(41 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.3
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.7
(14 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
6.4
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.1
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
1.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
6.4
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
7.3
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
ActiveCampaignbeehiiv
Likelihood to Recommend
ActiveCampaign
I've been using ActiveCampaign since around 2018-2019 and I've always been satisfied with the software. It's simple to use, connects with the other tools I use and makes it easy for me to duplicate automations, email templates and workflows as I need to. On top of that, any time I've had an issue (which I think is around twice in the past 5/6 years), the customer service has always been super helpful and my issue has been resolved quickly.
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beehiiv, Inc
Based on the analysis I made of various newsletter providers, beehiiv is the most suited for high-growth ones. If you ever plan or try to grow to 200k users, beehiiv has the best cost/value ratio.
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Pros
ActiveCampaign
  • Collects and filters emails from various lead magnets exceptionally well (especially if a user wants to re-sign up to the same lead magnet and go through it again, they can)
  • Super easy to use email creation that is aesthetically pleasing and user friendly
  • Easy email sequences and user classification from a large range of opt in trigger options
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beehiiv, Inc
  • Signup forms
  • Ease of use
  • Available documentation and video tutorials
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Cons
ActiveCampaign
  • It took me a while to get to understand where to find things, and I used a free online course from a consultant who specialises in AC to help me get the foundations set up more easily. That said, there were lots of onboarding workshops, which were good. It just felt like it required a lot of different angles of learning to just get started.
  • The customer support took longer than other software to get back to me via email, though once I found the chat option for my most recent query, that was fast.
  • I've ended up switching to another programme where more software is more naturally integrated, and the AC equivalent is included in the price, along with many other types of software. However, design-wise, ActiveCampaign is much better.
  • I also had a problem with a form used on my WordPress website, which has a BuddyBoss platform - the colours on the form would be overridden by colour choices for the website, so they were hard to read (pink text on purple background instead of the gold text it was meant to be)
  • I couldn't always find the templates I was looking for or how to access them for automation-based emails. I think when I used it, there was a new type of template for newsletters that weren't available for automations, so I had to recreate it, which added time.
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beehiiv, Inc
  • Pricing model - too steep
  • Weekly demo sessions or Q&As
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Likelihood to Renew
ActiveCampaign
I am committed at the moment. Rebuilding the automations I have would be a huge time drain. Plus the cost of learning a new system and the risk to deliverability of porting a 6,000 person list to a new platform. Also, AC offers everything I need ast a reasonable (but a little high) price. So, why not a 10? Because, early 2023, AC dropped a massive 2x price hike on long-term customers. They knew few would shift, so this feels like a cynical cash grab and left a bad taste, If they do something like this again, this camel will have a broken back.
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beehiiv, Inc
No answers on this topic
Usability
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign has been the easiest marketing automation software we have ever used. They provide tips throughout the entire process of anything you are building. Their support team through LIVE CHAT has been extremely fast and helpful. The monthly meetings provided with the enablement team has helped us through several large and urgent needs.
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beehiiv, Inc
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
ActiveCampaign
I haven't experienced application errors or unplanned outages at all. Active Campaign is ultra reliable and I would not be using them if that were the case. Also, the helpful emails they send are welcomed and informative, and present very practical tips and guidance for using the platform. They're always demonstrating new features and I'm thankful for that.
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beehiiv, Inc
No answers on this topic
Performance
ActiveCampaign
Oh my gosh, Active Campaign's performance gets an A+++ in my book. The pages load quickly and so do the reports. I haven't noticed any slowdowns when it's integrating with other programs and it performs excellently on all levels.
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beehiiv, Inc
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
ActiveCampaign
This might be the best part. The chat support lady offered to make a video to help me solve my problem. I worked in customer service for years and I've never done that, lol. So, if they're offering things like that, I can only imagine that they'd be able to handle most any issue you throw at them.
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beehiiv, Inc
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
ActiveCampaign
Very satisfied with our implementation in our professional medical practice, allowing us to be on top of client service, and not miss out on crucial information and insights. Marketing is often neglected in professional practices and ActiveCampaign solved this problem with aplomb.
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beehiiv, Inc
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
ActiveCampaign
I moved to ActiveCampaign from Mailchimp. Admittedly, I was using the free version of Mailchimp, but I had numerous episodes of subscriber data NOT being added to Mailchimp, despite using API to integrate with my mailing list. Obviously, I couldn't pay for clicks and not capture subscriber data, so I had to find something else. ActiveCampaign has been 100% reliable in testing.
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beehiiv, Inc
I found beehiiv the best suited for growth. The pricing model for other providers means your costs go up faster and steeper than with beehiiv.
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Scalability
ActiveCampaign
My web designer told me about Active Campaign and although I don't recall which platform I had before, I LOVE Active Campaign and its user friendliness. The transition was seamless and I've never had a problem with functionality or server failure.
Active Campaign provides so many features, and makes it easy for non-techies to maneuver around the site with ease. They capture information and put it in an easy-to-read format.
At this point, I don't think I'd ever use any other platform!
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beehiiv, Inc
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
ActiveCampaign
  • I haven't monetized my list yet so no clear ROI but great from a list-building perspective
  • The software is not cheap so at times I feel like I may not be getting the most out of the product because I'm not using all of the features
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beehiiv, Inc
  • Ease of use translates into more time focused on core business
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ScreenShots

ActiveCampaign Screenshots

Screenshot of tagging, that when combined with conditional content helps to put the right message in front of each customer.Screenshot of marketing automationScreenshot of audience segmentation based on engagement, purchase activity, lead score, or any other dimensionScreenshot of live chat, site messaging, email, and a unified inbox that can be used to build relationships with customers.Screenshot of the CRM, which helps sales reps to get more done in less time